In evaluation of a product design and the like, it is currently common to perform evaluation using a physical object (mock-up) close to a product. However, monetary cost and time cost to create such a mock-up become a major problem.
In order to solve this problem, it is just beginning to be proposed to evaluate a design and the like without a mock-up by utilizing a virtual reality (VR) system.
However, in most of the VR systems for design evaluation, products may be viewed but not actually touched for evaluation. In design evaluation, it is important to actually touch a product for evaluation.
Therefore, it is conceivable to apply so-called mixed reality (MR) wherein actual images are taken into a virtual space with a camera attached to a head mounted display (HMD). As a conventional technology related to MR, for example, there has been proposed a device that produces mixed reality by accurately filling in the gaps for a player moving across a wide range. This device includes: a work station having a plurality of markers arranged at known positions; a posture sensor attached to the player to detect the posture of the player's head; and a camera configured such that at least one of the markers comes into sight. This device detects the head position based on output from the posture sensor, and also corrects the detected head position signal by detecting the position of the camera through image processing of image signals from the camera. The device further generates a virtual image so as to produce mixed reality at a viewpoint position corresponding to the corrected head position.
Related techniques are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 11-136706.